Echoes..
of Epidamnus...
The deaths of the Iranian president, foreign minister, and governor of East Azerbaijan in a helicopter crash have been treated in the Western press as an accident, likely due to bad weather. That’s not how they’re being seen elsewhere.
Azerbaijan and Iran have a complicated relationship. More ethnic Azeris live in the latter than in the former. They include the Supreme Leader. Azerbaijan’s other main relationship – its client status vis-à-vis Israel – is one of the worst-kept secrets in its part of the world. That the president and his party were returning to Iran from a visit to Azerbaijan has raised an obvious suspicion, which Israel was very quick to deny. It’s unlikely to go away.
Azerbaijan impressed the world with its rapid reconquest of Karabakh. It has since threatened to take more territory. It’s now even being accused of fomenting a rebellion in New Caledonia. Beware small states with big appetites.
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